"It is amazing how much you can accomplish when it doesn't matter who gets the credit"
Harry Truman.
CARERS LATEST NEWS
03rd August 2010
Cared for dies after Carer dies and no one misses them
A severely disabled young woman has apparently starved to death after her mother, her sole Carer died and no one was left to care for them.
BBC NEWS STORY
Publishers Comment
Well I suppose it had to happen sooner or later as uncaring social services breathe a collective sigh of relief every time a carer says I don't need help I am ok. Birmingham has been lucky so far as no one has died unattended when they have uttered this phrase, often out of fear more than truth, and then ignored others pleas to intervene when they have been told by responsible people that "I am coping" is not the truth.
If a carer is truly coping and does not want help then all is ok but surely, like cases recently with children, there should be more action if real concerns are raised. In my recent experience I know the only answer you get is that they say they are ok.
I have only seen things get worse as this bully of an administration in Birmingham has destroyed Carers services, has frightened people into keeping quiet and staff are in fear of losing their job if they speak out. Something has to change unfortunately whilst this council continues to waste money on pet projects of councillors I doubt much will unless sadly the same happens here, I hope that never happens but some day the luck must run out.
01st April 2010
Bidding opens on Home Care Contract for Birmingham City Council
Birmingham City Council is inviting expressions of interest in providing Home Care via a tendering round of pre qualified organisations.
Please see this LETTER from Birmingham City Council it is in pdf form.
Closing date for expressions of interest is the 28th of May 2010.
12th March 2010
MS Carers views sought
Opinion Health, a healthcare market research firm based in the UK, and Oxford Outcomes, an healthcare consultancy, are looking for people who provide informal (unpaid) care to someone suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, to complete an online survey about their experiences of caring. The survey is 20 minutes long, and is aimed at understanding more about a caregiver’s quality of life.
A reward of £12 will be posted to each person who completes the survey after the study is over— or you can specify that the reward be donated to the patient group of your choice.
All responses will be confidential, and all information given will be studied in aggregated form only, and will then be deleted at the end of the study period. At the end of the survey, you will be asked to fill in address details for us to send the reward cheque.
You can take part in the survey by clicking on the This link :
The survey is due to close on Wednesday, 31st March 2010, but we would appreciate any replies to the survey before that date, to establish some early trends.
If you have any further questions about the survey, please do not hesitate to contact.
Paul Eccles, PhD, Senior Research Executive, Opinion Health,
11 Poland Street, London, W1F 8QA, UK.
0044-(0)20-7486-6700
info@opinionhealth.co.uk
01st February 2010
All wound up for CASI
The organisation that falsely styled itself as "formally Birmingham Carers" is no more it was officially wound up on the 5th of January 2010. A fact that was only brought to our attention today as someone asked if I wanted to buy their domain name!
It says a lot about the people running it, I’m not allowed to tell you who they are but do a search on 192.com, that despite the damage done by them to Birmingham Carers Support Services their organisation only lasted another 6 weeks longer, BCSS having been wound up on the 17th November 2009.
We are only left to wonder what happened to the certain 1/2 million pounds cash they stole from BCSS (true figure is likely to be nearer 1 million pounds but the conspirators have never allowed the paperwork out and have held what does not belong to them illegally despite requests to release it.) that was stolen from the BCSS account.
Money that was the result of the hard work of many carers over the years was probably squndered in keeping CASI in business for just 2 years, what a waste.
29th September 2009
FREE CARE FOR EVERYONE!
The Prime Minister today announced that disabled and older people with critical needs will be entitled to free care in their homes. This would benefit up to 350,000 people and could mean families who are currently struggling to meet the costs of care could be hundreds of pounds better off.
He said that from October 2010 those with the highest needs would get free personal care in their own homes, with the aim of encouraging saving and helping older people to stay in their own homes for as long as possible.
Publishers Comment
Sniff Sniff what is that I smell oh yes its desperation! A Prime Minister desperate to keep his job offering lots of things, if he is re-elected, that we have not had and have been asking for, for a very long time. But 2 things hit me, firstly he has to be re-elected and secondly we have to trust him to deliver it, in the way we expect him to deliver It.
Look at the way it was phrased, those with the highest needs, not everyone but those with the highest needs. What does this mean? I read it as meaning those social workers, you know the know nothing give nothing do nothing people that already have too much power to mess up peoples lives will get more power to sit in a room with their friends and try and work out where the line is and who should be over it. All of this at your cost and will deliver very little where it matters, still least the sandwiches and coffee will be nice for them.
Lets face it he has tried in recent months to sell new cars to us by bribing those of us with old cars with new ones but would you trust them to deliver this? Would you buy a second hand car from these people, it's all about trust sadly I don't think there is that much trust in the world.
22nd August 2009
5th International Carers Conference
The 5th International Carers Conference is to be held in the UK at the University of Leeds between the 8th and 11th of July 2010.
Publishers Comment
The first International Conference was held in the uk a long time ago and I was part of a group that went to Washington to represent the City of Birmingham when there was a better working relationship between Carers and the City in 2002. It was a very good experence and it is recommended for any groups who can get themselves to this conference.
05th August 2009
KimmiT acquires the birminghamcarers.org.uk address
KimmiT ltd has acquired the domain name birminghamcarers.org.uk to add to the domain birmingham-carers.org.uk which it also controls. The domain for the time being will point at the BICA website but may be used for other purposes in the future.
The 5th International Carers Conference is to be held in the UK at the University of Leeds between the 8th and 11th of July 2010.
Publishers Comment
The first International Conference was held in the UK a long time ago and I was part of a group that went to Washington to represent the City of Birmingham when there was a better working relationship between Carers and the City in 2002. It was a very good experience and it is recommended for any groups who can get themselves to this conference.
05th August 2009
Washwood Heath Carers Support Group
The Carers' Development and Support Service (CDSS) provides information and advice, individual and group support, signposting to other services and referrals. Home visits are offered according to priority and resources.
Their Carers Support Group is for carers in and around the Washwood Heath ward. The group is open to all carers and is held on 1st Wednesday of every month from 11am till 12:30pm at Naseby Centre, Naseby Road, Alum Rock, B8 3HG. MAP OF Naseby Centre
These sessions offer information, advice, support and refreshments in a relaxed and informal atmosphere. The group provides opportunity for Carers to share and learn from each other's experiences and professionals are at hand to provide advice & guidance.
The next session is on 2nd September 2009 at 11am.
Publishers Comment
I am always happy to try and help publicise events that may be of genuine help to carers in the city of Birmingham and elsewhere. If you think we can help be in touch.
19th July 2009
Carers Courses
the National Extension College has been awarded the contract to run the Self-study Caring with Confidence course.
This is a free knowledge and skills based programme which aims to help carers make a positive difference to their lives and the lives of the people they care for.
It is open to unpaid carers living in England and who are 18 and over.
When a carer registers for this course, they will receive seven attractive full colour workbooks which they can work through in their own time and they will be able to access a private online student support site and, if they wish, the support of a personal mentor.
The course is not assessed but carers can opt for a completion certificate when each workbook is completed. They can register for the self- study course by telephone (01223 400393) or online or email cwc@nec.ac.uk>
Participants will have the opportunity to mix and match from the 3 options that are available.
These are:
the self-study option which is managed solely by National Extension College
Face-to-face workshops if you are lucky enough to have a local provider in your area or the online option which is looked after by a separate organisation. Please go to CwC's own website for more information about the last 2 options
30th March 2009
Carers impassioned plea to
David Cameron
A Carer has written to David Cameron in desperation about their situation and to date has received no reply. They have now emailed him in a desperate attempt to gain some help in fighting Birmingham Social Services on this matter if you want to help please contact us on 07742864571
Publishers Comment
Yet another example of a Carer, Council Tax Payer being ignored by the people who's wages they pay for. When will this council be brought to book for wasting millions on councillors egos whilst denying the most vulnerable decent services and when they are asked difficult questions from people who are not their "friends" ignoring them. A challenge to the national press stop complaining that the home secretary claimed accidentally £10 for porn movies and start looking at the millions wasted on councillors pet projects that bring little or no benefit to anyone other than the staff employed in them.
The Letter un-edited
Dear Mr Cameron
i wrote to you recently about a very serious plight our severally disabled children are being put through along with us carers due to sheila Rochester ,sue Anderson and their associates who are looking to save money for the gov and the council by taking our children from their special private day placement centres and trying to force them into unfit council run day centres which the councils scrutiny team have already condemned and intend to close three of these centres down as the council have 900 placements and 600 are filled and 300 are empty and the council want to save money and they are trying to take away the day placement costs for our children knowing full well our children are very vulnerable and innocent and need protecting .
The very special day placements are in place because our children are severally disabled and blind and require very special care due to their visual disabilities and severe learning difficulties the council day care centres are not able to provide this level of care for our children as the council is well aware.
As parents and Carers we each had to fight for this special day placement at the Elizabeth Gunn centre of excellence for the blind and severally disabled with complex needs and extreme learning difficulties they didn't just fall in our laps we all had to go down the path of the law court system and prove to the social services who like to make our lives very difficult that our children did in fact need very special services to care for them at a very specialist day centre .
The Elizabeth Gunn centre in Harborne Birmingham is the only centre in England that is fully equipped to deal with our children's needs and The only centre where the staff have been fully trained to a very high standard to deal with the extreme complex needs of a blind client with learning difficulties as for our children their environment has to be so very calm and understanding to ensure their well being .
To get a placement in the Elizabeth Gunn centre of excellence was like being given the golden ticket for Willy wonkas chocolate factory as once our children entered the centre their lives would never be the same again .The centre is a world of love care and attention for the blind and the disabled and the cabinet want to take our children's day placements from them and destroy their lives to save money when they are all so very fond of wasting money on foolish things .
I watch the news every day about MP,S being greedy and claiming money for two houses or falsely directing large amounts of funding for themselves and their family's or being photographed snorting cocaine etc and they get a pat on the back and and given a luxury holiday until the news coverage dies down .
What do we get as carers ? 55p an hour and no sleep /early death / no support / cant afford to buy a home as we cant afford it because we are looking after our children as for holidays ? please that's is but a dream/ a night out is the nearest ACCIDENT AND EMERGENCY FOR EPILEPTIC FITS ) hardly the ballet .
Expensive perfume what a councillor wears no not for us we have a special perfume ours is called urine and excrement up to your elbows and its free with every disabled child and promises to linger for a very long time in-fact the aroma fills your home .
We suffer all the sticks the stones the broken bones and the names aimed at our children do hurt them and us but their is nothing more patronising and can raise real heart felt anger from the depths of within than when we as parents are told how our children's lives are going to be directed .
We have to stand by and watch a team of people who don't know anything about caring for a disabled child make decisions about our children's future when we are the experts of our children and their individual needs.How dare councillors and cabinet members in their ivory towers decide to destroy the environments of our children and how they should be looked after to survive this life as they fight for survival every day as do we and when we have a quiet moment which is rare we allow ourselves to shed a tear because we are tired and we ache both mentally and physically but we don't ever give up as our children depend upon us to fight their corner and protect them from the world and we will as long as the good lord gives us breath in our bodies .
As i said in my letter to you Mr Cameron yourself and your wife totally understand what it is like to stand in our shoes for all the years you gave such loving care to your beautiful son Ivan god bless him. my own son Anthony is totally confined to a wheel chair and receives from myself full special care as in washing feeding, dressing etc and i am sole carer 24 hrs a Day due to Anthony's extreme epilepsy and 365 days a year and i have been caring for my sons extreme complex needs for near 29 years and of course i am paid 55p an hour by the gov in the year 2009 .
I receive no respite care as the social services said they couldn't afford the care costs in a respite care facility as my son needed no less than two carers for himself 24 hours but they think it is okay for me to suffer with out a break year in year out .
If our children are forced out of their day placements by theses Men ( peter hay ) and woman acting for the council and are the cabinet members what will become of our children's lives and our lives .?What happened to our children's Human rights as individuals ? and what they want and what they need .
Does any one even care any more as i feel that the council and the gov are finding our children an inconvenience to them and their money and it frightens me as a parent as to think what the future holds for the disabled child in the UK which has become so uncaring .
I Myself save the gov 250.000 year ( that was the estimate seven years ago by a barrister so by to days costs it has increased lots. So if all parents decided to no longer care for their children what would this Gov do then? it would cost them a fortune to care for our children full time .
As i said i contacted you by post but as yet i have heard nothing from you or any member of the council or gov office our children are being completely IGNORED and time for our children's day placement review by the cabinet of wolves is running out and although i respect you are a very busy man our children and us parents and carers need your support in this matter before the gov start to make Hitler blush with their acts of cruelty against the disabled children in the UK because they are not looking in the interests of our children they are picking on them because they are vulnerable and gentle and innocent in this world so they can only see to destroy their lives for money not prosper their lives .
LS ( devoted mother of A...... aged 29)
24 March 2009
Ombudsman condemns the treatment of learning disabled people
NHS and social care staff have been responsible for an appalling catalogue of neglect of people with learning disabilities, the health and local government ombudsmen say today after an investigation into six "distressing" deaths."
Link to Ombudsman Site HERE
Report part one (overview) | Report part two | Report part three | Report part four | Report part five | Report part six | Report part seven | Report part eight (easy read version)
Guardian article
Publishers Comment
This damning indictment may be shocking to some outside the caring community but to most inside it will resonate as the only truth they have ever known. Whilst its interesting that someone with such access to the media we know nothing will really change until Social Care organisations are pulled to the ground completely and new organisations built in their place. This however will never happen due to too many over paid incompetent people having too much of an interest in keeping the status quo.
10 October 2008
BBC radio presenters suspended after mocking disabled people
The Telegraph reports That 2 presenters on BBC SCR (Local radio in Brighton area) have been suspended for using the phrase "window lickers".
The Pair, Andrew Hawes who commentates on games involving Brighton and Hove Albion FC and Ian Hart who presents the after match phone in programme were engaged in the exchange during an argument with a caller on the phone-in programme who was offering forthright views on the merits of manager Mickey Adams.
Mr Hart who prior to becoming a presenter on local radio was a leading light in the campaign against the former owners of Brighton and Hove Albion FC and co-publisher of the popular fanzine "Seagulls Eye" has apologised for his comments. Mr Hawse is yet to comment publicly on the matter.
Comment on this page on the BICA message board .
Further coverage from Brighton Argus .
28th August 2008
Washwood Heath Carers Support Group
The Carers' Development and Support Service (CDSS) provides information and advice, individual and group support, signposting to other services and referrals. Home visits are offered according to priority and resources.
Their Carers Support Group is for carers in and around the Washwood Heath ward. The group is open to all carers and is held on 1st Wednesday of every month from 11am till 12:30pm at Naseby Centre, Naseby Road, Alum Rock, B8 3HG. MAP OF Naseby Centre
These sessions offer information, advice, support and refreshments in a relaxed and informal atmosphere. The group provides opportunity for Carers to share and learn from each other's experiences and professionals are at hand to provide advice & guidance.
The next session is on 3rd September 2008 at 11am.
Publishers Comment
I am always happy to try and help publicise events that may be of genuine help to carers in the city of Birmingham and elsewhere. If you think we can help be in touch.
21st July 2008
Government Plans Radical Changes to Benefits System
The Government has announced a green paper consultation on radical changes to the benefits system.
The changes have some radical ideas like making people who have been unemployed for 2 years do community tasks in return for their benefits.
James Purnell the minister responsible will be holding a question and answer session on the green paper via a web chat on Tues 22nd of July on the No 10 site.
Link to The Green Paper.
Link to The Press release.
Link to The Guardian's Article.
Publishers Comment
It is possibly well passed time that the benefits system was overhauled and the many people that seem to see it as a passport to a life of leisure is stopped. This sadly includes some Carers who over play the disabilities of the people they care for or who go along and support fraudulent claims from people who are not as disabled as they claim.
It is noted that the only people exempt from the need to work after two years of benefits are Full Time Carers and those whose disabilities are so severe that it makes them most in need of support. It should also be noted that there are many Carers who care for people whose disabilities will no longer qualify them to not work. This bit needs careful consideration and care about how it is drafted if there is not to be significant distress caused to people who have never done anything but care for the person with a disability who once upon a time fitted they system.
17th July 2008
Carer Wins landmark legal case
ECJ Decision: Coleman v Attridge Law
[Thanks to Paul Michell of Cloisters, who acted for Mrs Coleman, for providing this summary]
The ECJ (European Courts of Justice) has, this morning, published its landmark decision in Coleman v Attridge Law, in answer to questions posed of it by London South Employment Tribunal. Following the Advocate General’s opinion given on 31 January 2008, the ECJ has confirmed that the Equal Treatment Framework Directive is intended to prohibit associative discrimination in the context of direct discrimination and harassment.
Ms Coleman alleges she was directly discriminated against and harassed by her former employers on grounds of the disability of her son, for whom she is the primary carer. According to the ECJ's decision, the Directive is intended to prohibit direct discrimination or harassment on grounds of disability, even where the person concerned is not disabled themselves.
The Directive applies to age, sexual orientation, religion and belief, as well as disability. Following the ECJ's decision, direct discrimination by association in those other contexts must also be prohibited. (Notably, the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 do not yet appear to afford protection from direct discrimination by association in the context of age.)
Ms Coleman's former employer was a law firm, not a public body. Hence the next stage in her case will be to ascertain if the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 can be read purposively, so as to conform with the intent of the Framework Directive which it is supposed to implement.
See the Full Press Release here
FULL JUDGMENT OF THE COURT (Grand Chamber)
OPINION OF ADVOCATE GENERAL
BBC News report on the case
The Guardian Online's take on the issue
Publishers Comment
It is disapointing that Carers have to resort to the law still to get fair and honest treatment by employers and in many cases by councils in order to get rights that are taken for granted by non-carers and parents of children with no disabilities.
My thanks to Daniel Barnett for providing information on this case.
10th June 2008
£150m over 2 years to "double" short breaks for carers
The government is to announce plans to double the amount of short breaks for people who look after frail and disabled relatives in England.
The announcement, expected today, is part of a 10-year drive to improve the lives of the UK's 6m carers with the £255m over 3 years.
According to the Department of Health an extra £150m will double the amount of short breaks time available over 2 years.
More details can be had from the Dept of Health Press Release
Publishers Comment
Of course its fine to announce money but is it new money or reannounced money? What if any research has happened to the other money poured into "Carers Services" in the last 10 years and how this has affected real carers lives? It is also easy to grab a headline that it will double carers short breaks but in order for short breaks to be doubled you have to be receiving some in the first place, double nothing is still nothing. I fear that this money will just be wasted again by councillors keen on their own ego's and on more managers for the health service, I wait to be proved wrong.
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